The present invention refers to an absorbent article such as a diaper and an incontinence guard comprising a liquid permeable topsheet, a liquid impermeable backsheet and an absorbent body enclosed therebetween, said article having a front portion, a rear portion and a crotch portion therebetween, and further is provided with a belt attached to or intended to be attached to the rear portion of the article and to the front portion of the article, in such a way that the article will assume a pantlike shape, where the belt forms a part of the waist portion of the pant.
Diapers and incontinence guards for incontinent adults usually have a garment portion holding an absorbent body in place against the user""s body and attachment means which hold the garment portion in place also when the user is moving. A common type of attachment means are adhesive tapes or hook and loop fasteners of the touch-and-close type which directly attach the front and rear portions of the absorbent article to each other. It is further known, through e g WO 98/37847, EP-A-0 287 388, EP-A-0 409 307, EP-A-0 605 012 and FR-A-2 586 558, to attach the front and rear portions of the article by means of a belt, at which the possibilities to adjust the fit are improved.
A problem with these belts is that they easily cause skin irritations to the user, due to that the belt is in direct contact with the skin of the wearer and has to be tightened relatively strongly in order to have a satisfactory fit and security against leakage of the diaper or incontinence guard. By the tight contact and friction between the belt and the skin there will be a mechanic wear of the skin which gives rise to irritation and even skin injuries.
The object of the invention is to provide a belt for absorbent articles which is kind to the skin and by that does not give rise to skin irritations and injuries. This has been solved by the fact that the belt comprises a flexible laminate of a carrier material intended to form the outside of the belt and a soft nonwoven material intended to form the inside of the belt and which will be in contact with the skin of the user, at which said laminate has a Shinyakasa value according to Kawabata of 5 or more.
The test method in question is used in the textile industry for measuring smoothness and flexibility of a material and is disclosed in xe2x80x9cThe Standardization and Analysis of Hand Evaluation (2 nd Edition), Sueo Kawabata, July 1980, The Hand Evaluation and Standardization Committee, The Textile Machinery Society of Japanxe2x80x9d, a copy of which has been filed in this application.
Other features of the invention are disclosed in the following description and claims.